Aurora Russian Guided Missile Submarine

[Ernie]

I will start with this one, it was started earlier this year and was intended to be a purely nostalgia build. It is not a complicated kit by any means, but somehow I stalled out on it. It shouldn't take too much work to finish, I just need to get on with it.

 

 

I put most of it together in a day, and then from there things just went down hill...….

 

 

It is a little further along than this now, I painted it once but was not happy with the paint work, so I stripped off the first coat of paint, smoothed everything out again, and repainted. And that is about where I lost interest in it 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Ernie

[Mjwomack]

Oh the commentary for this - there must be template text for KUTA builds.

'somehow I stalled'..'it shouldn't take much time' etc. etc.

None of them should take much time, and yet this KUTA goes on for months- I expect a flurry of late progress and pleas for an extension coming on already!!

[Greg Law]

On 28/10/2019 at 23:56, Mjwomack said:

Oh the commentary for this - there must be template text for KUTA builds.

'somehow I stalled'..'it shouldn't take much time' etc. etc.

None of them should take much time, and yet this KUTA goes on for months- I expect a flurry of late progress and pleas for an extension coming on already!!

People have lives that get in the way of fast finishing and when that happens there is a strong chance of loss of enthusiasm for a project.  This is why these GB's help us get back to them and get them over the line.  The reasons for projects stalling will often be similar so common reasons are to be expected.  

[Ernie]

As I was building this kit as a nostalgia build, I attempted to use the kit decals; they were like rhinoceros's hide. I put one of the sail numbers on, hit it with every decal setter I had before leaving for work. When I returned home the decal was set, but it did not conform to the detail on the sail and the edges were extremely visible being so thick as to have a discernable "edge" to them. No problem, I'll just remove them, yeah...…..I finally had to resort to sanding the decals off and repainting the sail, so the model has now been painted 2 1/2 times   😡 Fortunately, Aurora used 45 deg. numbers for the sail, so I found a set of multiple sizes of these numbers as well as some silver strip decals made by Fantasy Printshop on Ebay, to replace the kit decals. So, these have been applied to the model, as well as a section of the silver stripe detail to the perturbance on the deck toward the bow. Early Soviet subs had these sensor panels left in natural metal. The escape hatch on the rear deck was marked with a white circle punched from white decal paper, with a couple orange triangle sections added also from spare decal material. After letting the decals set overnight I sprayed another coat of gloss over the decals to seal them in.

 

 

 

As tough as the kit decals were, the one for the display base split into many pieces when I tried to apply it to the base and became unusable. Instead I used an image of the original box art for the kit, and printed that on white decal paper and used that on the kit supplied stand.  That box art is much more dramatic and cool looking than the one on the 1972 issue of the kit that I was using, so it looks kind of fitting on the display stand.

 

 

The kit will never be an accurate replica of a Golf class sub, but Aurora left it kind of wanting in the aerial fit for the top of the sail, so I made up a couple new ones to add to the sail, again, they are just representations of what would be seen on Soviet subs of the era, and nothing 100% accurate. I used a couple pieces of Contrail Rod and Tube stock, brass wire and a piece of p/e. Again, nothing specifically accurate, but a fair representation to make it look more "submarineish"   😋

 

[thorfinn]

I really enjoy this...with a healthy dose of empathy for the difficulties you've pressed on through.

10 minutes ago, Ernie said:

The kit will never be an accurate replica of a Golf class sub, but Aurora left it kind of wanting in the aerial fit for the top of the sail, so I made up a couple new ones to add to the sail, again, they are just representations of what would be seen on Soviet subs of the era, and nothing 100% accurate. I used a couple pieces of Contrail Rod and Tube stock, brass wire and a piece of p/e. Again, nothing specifically accurate, but a fair representation to make it look more "submarineish"

I've found that '-ish' is the key in nostalgia builds like this. If one really wanted to 'accu-detail,' it would almost always be easier to scratchbuild or find a high-end kit. But there is a certain satisfaction to be had in bashing one of these old sow's ears into something beyond conventional expectation. Adding what I like to call 'representational detail' gives these old pieces a new gloss they deserve.

[Ernie]

Thank you @thorfinn I like that sentiment, yes just adding little details along the way to spruce up the old kit a bit, as you say to take it a bit further than the conventional expectations for the kit. Thank you for that insight, I like it very much, and it is an apt description of this project.

[Ernie]

Well, I'll call this one done! Added the masts to the top of the sail and the props, then the final flat coat. The nav lights on the sail and the windows were made with Micro Scale Krystal Kleer tinted with Tamiya clear red and green for the lights and clear blue for the windows. I am happy with how it turned out; I remember seeing the kit when I was young, but never built it, so I am happy to have had the chance to do so now. If the weather cooperates  over the next couple days I will try to get some better pics. This also makes the first group build I have completed, so happy about that as well!

 

 

 

[CliffB]

Congratulations on bringing this over the line and for completing your first Group Build!

 

Cliff